Bolero: An example of ostinato

The 2nd graders have been talking about (and practicing their own) ostinatos (repeated musical patterns). Today, I showed them clips of the biggest ostinato example I know: Bolero by Maurice Ravel. Listen to the snare drum rhythm at the beginning. Then the flute comes in with a melody on top of it. The melody moves over to the clarinet, and the flute starts playing the same rhythm as the snare drum. This kind of trading around grows more intricate as the piece goes on, but the ostinato in the background never goes away. 

Check out this video and see if you can pick out the ever-present ostinato:

Music Notes: End of April 2015

Music Notes

End of April 2015

Hello, everyone!

The school year is winding down, and it feels like we’re only getting busier as the summer draws near! April is Jazz Appreciation Month, so we’ve been listening to, enjoying, and performing jazz music in addition to our other curricular learning targets.

Earlier this month, we were fortunate to be able to have the jazz combo from Pulaski High School travel to Lannoye and perform as part of our Special Loved Ones Day. For pictures and videos from that performance (along with other music room updates), please check out our blog at:

http://lannoyemusic.blogspot.com

Still looking for donations: If you’ve got any empty small tissue boxes (not the long rectangular ones), I’ll take them from now until the end of the year! I’m planning ahead for a 3^rd grade rhythm activity next winter…

Here’s what we’ve been working on in April:

This month, the kindergarteners, 1^st graders, and 2^nd graders all learned the song “Down Came a Lady,” which we sing while playing a game with two concentric circles. They also learned “Teddy Bear,” which is a jump rope song with actions. The students got to watch and dance to a variety of jazz videos throughout the month, and scatted along with the book Freddie the Frog and the Flying Jazz Kitten.

In addition to the aforementioned activities, the kindergarteners took turns singing the echo song “Down by the Bay.” They played some more “Bee, Bee, Bumblebee” and worked their way up to the beginning stages of Rhythm Band (an activity in which they play rhythm instruments with picture notation).

The 1^st graders practiced reading, writing, singing, and signing their first two solfege pitches, so and mi. They read the book Do Re Mi: If You Can Read Music, Thank Guido D’Arezzo, which helped introduce them to the music staff. At the end of the month, they added la to their solfege knowledge, using songs like “Doggy, Doggy” and “Lucy Locket.”

The 2^nd graders practiced reading, writing, singing, and signing their solfege pitches (do, mi, so, and la), and added re at the end of the month. At the beginning of the month, they also did a listening exercise with plastic eggs filled with different materials. You can read more about that activity on the blog!

The 3^rd graders started their month by watching the last two March Madness “Star-Spangled Banner” performances and comparing and contrasting them. They also watched some short jazz improvisation clips. Students practiced identifying time signatures visually and aurally, distinguishing between 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time signatures. They did a sorting activity with plastic eggs to practice identifying time signatures by sight. The 3^rd graders also practiced reading, writing, singing, and signing their solfege pitches (do, re, mi, so, la, and high do). They finished out the month by learning low so through the song “Scotland’s Burning,” and preparing for low la with “Down Came a Lady.”

The 4^th and 5^th graders learned more new notes on recorder. The 4^th graders now know G, A, B, C, and D, and the 5^th graders know low C, low D, low (and high) E, F#, G, A, B, high C, and high D. They’ve all been working on supplemental material, including the song “A Minor Melody” by Jim Tinter, and stretching their brains by improvising over different accompaniment tracks. We watched a couple videos of jazz performances in which the soloists traded improvised solos of varying lengths (as long as 32 measures and as short as 2 measures), and the students have been trading 2s, 4s, and 8s with partners ever since. Please make sure your students are practicing their recorders – ask for an in-home performance! J

Reminder to the parents of 5^th graders who will be in band next year: The beginning band parent meeting is Monday, May 11^th, at 6 pm in the PCMS auditorium, and instrument fitting days are May 14^th and 18^th.

Upcoming performances in the area:
Tuesday, May 5             6:30 pm      PCMS Band Concert

                                                          PCMS Gym

Tuesday, May 12           6:30 pm      PCMS Choir Concert

                                                          PCMS Gym (Preceded by the PCMS Art Show at 6 pm)

Sunday, May 17            1:00 pm      Spring PHS Band and Choir Awards Concert

                                                          PHS Ripley PAC

Thursday, May 21         7:00 pm      PCMS Jazz Night

                                                          PCMS Auditorium

Sunday, July 12             7:00 pm      Pulaski Area Community Band Concert

                                                          Shippy Park

July 16 – 19                   Varies         Pulaski Polka Days

                                                          Visit www.pulaskipolkadays.com for more info
Sunday, August 9          7:00 pm      Pulaski Area Community Band Concert

                                                          Shippy Park

Ms. Corinne Galligan

(920) 822-0433

cmgalligan@pulaskischools.org

lannoyemusic.blogspot.com    

Today's Google Doodle - happy 360th, Cristofori!

If you get a chance, check out today's Google Doodle! Today is the 360th anniversary of Bartolomeo Cristofori's birth. He invented the piano over 300 years ago. It was originally called the pianoforte because it could play soft (piano) and loud (forte). Cristofori's hammer system (in which hammers strike the strings) made that possible, since the strength of the strike can be altered depending on how hard the player presses the key. This is different than the harpsichord, in which the strings are actually plucked with no volume control. Today's Doodle is pretty neat - the animation shows the basic piano hammer mechanism in action!

Easter Egg Activities

The second and third graders got to enjoy some different Easter egg activities earlier this month!

The second graders each got a plastic egg filled with some sort of material (felt, paper, paperclips, macaroni, etc.) and had to keep their mouths silent as they shook their eggs around the room. Their goal was to find the classmate whose egg contents matched theirs...using only their ears. This was a good challenge for the students' listening ears (and silent mouths)!

The third graders practiced identifying different time signatures with their eyes and ears this month. One of our visual/reading practice activities involved working with a partner to divide a bag of eggs into 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time signature piles.

Jazz Appreciation Month: Scat Singing

As part of Jazz Appreciation Month, the younger grades got to read the book Freddie the Frog and the Flying Jazz Kitten.

In this story, Freddie the Frog and his best friend Eli the Elephant see a plane land on the other side of the Crocodile River. While exploring the plane that his friend was too big to board, Freddie the Frog accidentally flies away to a gig with five cool cats. The Flying Jazz Kitten helps him hold his own as she teaches him how to scat, though. Eventually he realizes that she disappeared during his performance, and he did just fine without her!

The students got to practice their own scat singing (musically making up their own nonsense syllables and sounding like instruments), and they got to hear other examples of scatting.

Here's a famous example of nonsense words, brought to you by The Muppets:

What about this famous scene between Baloo and King Louie?

Here's another example, from Ella Fitzgerald:

With some call and response added by Cab Calloway:

Appreciating Jazz at Special Loved Ones Day

This year at Lannoye, we organized our Special Loved Ones Day (formerly known as Grandparents Day) differently. Students got to spend time with their special loved ones at different stations throughout the school. They got to read, make crafts, go on a scavenger hunt, learn more about each other through interviews, and enjoy some time together. The day ended with an in-house performance by the Red Raider Jazz Combo from Pulaski High School. (Happy Jazz Appreciation Month!) Lannoye students and their families were able to get together and listen to some great music! Many thanks to Ms. Kayla Koch and the high school students and parents that were able to make this performance happen!

PHS Red Raider Combo performs at Lannoye's Special Loved Ones Day

Side view of the Red Raider Jazz Combo

Audience members got to get up and dance!

Another view of the dancing

"Cold Duck Time"

"Doxy"

April Fools!

I found this video tonight and thought some people might enjoy it... Here's the "Duetto buffo di due gatti."

Next, enjoy some sportscast commentary by Peter Schickele, also known as PDQ Bach. (I'm pretty sure my Music Theory IV professor introduced us to this my sophomore year of college, and we listened to the whole thing during class.)

For more comedic music, check out WQXR's April Fools article!